E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi – His Life & Timesyears old. His ideals and mine having been discovered over fifteen years ago tobe different, he has been living separately from me and has been supported byor through me. It has been my invariable rule to regard my boys as my friendsand equals as soon as they completed their sixteen years ... Hiralal wasnaturally influenced by the Western veneer that my life at one time did have.His commercial undertakings were totally independent of me. Could I haveinfluenced him he would have been associated with me in my several publicactivities and earning at the same time a decent livelihood. But he chose, as hehad every right to do, a different and independent path. He was and still isambitious. He wants to become rich, and that too, easily. Possibly he has agrievance against me that when it was open to me to do so, I did not equip himand my other children for careers that lead to wealth and fame that wealthbrings .. I do not know Hiralal's affairs. He meets me occasionally, but I neverpry into his affairs. I do not know how his affairs stand at present, except thatthey are in a bad way ... There is much in Hiralal's life that I dislike. He knowsthat. But I love him in spite of his faults. The bosom of a father will take him inas soon as he seeks entrance... Let the client's example be a warning againstpeople being guided by big names in their transactions. Men may be good, notnecessarily their children ... Caveat emptor.Hiralal naturally caused his mother endless tortures. Kasturbai brought up hisfour children with a grandmother's tenderness. In the 1930s, she could notcontrol her grief, and wrote Hiralal an emotional letter; one of his adventureshad got into the newspapers.My dear son Hiralal, I have read that recently in Madras policemen found youmisbehaving in a state of drunkenness at midnight in an open street and tookyou into custody. Next day you were produced before a bench of Magistratesand they fined you one rupee. They must have been very good people to treatyou so leniently.Even the Magistrates showed regard for your father in thus giving you onlynominal punishment. But I have been feeling very miserable ever since I heardabout this incident. I do not know whether you were alone that night or werewww.mkgandhi.org Page 238